Robinhood to raise at an $8 billion valuation, sources say

Now the startup in the midst of an upround, sources say. Robinhood is raising roughly $250 million in funding led by existing investor Sequoia that would anoint the company with a pre-money valuation of about $8 billion (or a valuation before accounting for the new investment), as first reported by Bloomberg. 

Sources with knowledge of the matter add that the numbers may shift as the round has yet to close and the company is still in the process of nailing down some participating investors. 

It’s an uptick in valuation for Robinhood, which previously raised $323 million at a valuation of $7.6 billion for its Series E round led by DST Global. Other existing investors for the company include GV, Index Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Dragoneer, Kleiner Perkins, and Ribbit Capital.

While Robinhood is still managing fallout from its outage, the record traffic resulting from the market’s coronavirus induced up and downs, has also resulted in record account signups.

Robinhood declined to comment.

Should the airlines get a bailout? On one hand, the travel industry has been stricken by an unpredictable Act of God. On the other, the Big Four have channeled 70% of their total net income into buybacks and dividends in the last three years—leaving the industry in a flimsy state to weather a financial downturn that has hit the travel industry first.

Here’s where the government has landed: $50 billion of the federal government’s $2 trillion stimulus package has been earmarked for passenger carriers. But major carriers will have to forgo stock buybacks and dividends, possibly for years, and impose strict caps on C-suite pay. Read it here.

There’s been lively chatter about the topic—so I wonder—do you, Term Sheet readers, think airlines should get a relief package? Let me know why or why not.

Startup Layoffs: Online real estate company OpenDoor has laid off 600. VSCO had cut a third of its staff. SoftBank-backed Zume laid off another round of about 200. Carta lays off 161 as it raises more funding at a higher valuation. 

VENTURE DEALS

- Airwallex, a Melbourne-based cross-border financial startup, raised $160 million in Series D funding. New investors include ANZi Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, joining returning investors DST Global, Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Horizons Ventures. Read more.

- BioCatch, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of biometrics security technology, raised $145 million in funding.Bain Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including American Express Ventures, Maverick Ventures, and Israeli crowd-funding investor, OurCrowd. Read more.

- Taxfix, a Berlin-based automated tax software provider, raised $65 million in Series C funding. Index Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Valar Ventures, Creandum and Redalpine. Read more.

- Lucid, a South Jordan, Ut.-based creator of workplace collaboration platforms, raised $52 million in funding. ICONIQ Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Meritech Capital, Spectrum Equity and new investor, Cross Creek.

- Gousto, a London-based meal-kit service, raised £33 million ($41 million) in funding. Perwyn led the round, and was joined by investors including  BGF Ventures,  MMC Ventures and Joe Wicks. Read more.

- Avectas, a Dublin-based cell engineering technology business, raised $20 million in Series C funding. Existing investor Seamus Mulligan led the round.

- Attentive, a mobile messaging startup, raised $40 million in additional Series C funding, bringing the round size up to $110 million. Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Coatue are the new investors. Read more.

- Choco, a U.S. and Germany-based startup connecting restaurants with ingredients suppliers, announced today that it has raised $30.2 million in Series A2 funding. Coatue led the round.

- NoBroker,  a Bangalore-based startup property rental or acquisition platform, raised  $30 million in additional Series D funding from General Atlantic. Read more.

- Coder, an Austin-based platform for developers to write code, raised $30 million in Series B funding. GGV Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Redpoint Ventures, Uncork Capital and In-Q-Tel.

- Greenbits, a San Jose, Calif.-based cannabis retail platform, raised $23 million in Series B funding. Tiger Global Management co-led the round with Casa Verde.

- Alluxio, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of open source cloud data orchestration software, extended its Series B funding to $15.5 million. Volcanics Ventures and a16z co-led the round, and were joined by investors including Isilon Founder Sujal Patel and YY Founding CTO Tony Zhao, and Seven Seas Partners.

- Juganu, an Israeli smart city lighting solutions company, raised $12 million in funding. Comcast Ventures, led the round, and was joined by investors including Viola Growth Fund and Amdocs (Nasdaq: DOX). Another $6 million was used to purchase shares from existing investors.

- Previse, an AI and data science fintech for invoice payments, raised $11 million in funding. Reefknot Investments (founded by Temasek Holdings and Kuehne + Nagel) and Mastercard led the round, and was joined by investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Hambro Perks, and Augmentum Fintech.

- Kairos Aerospace, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of aerial monitoring of methane emissions, raised $9 million in Series C funding. OGCI Climate Investments led the round, and was joined by investors including John Crane and Energy Innovation Capital.

- Autofleet, a Tel Aviv provider of AI-powered fleet optimization and vehicle-as-a-service solutions, raised $7.5 million in Series A and seed funding. MizMaa Ventures led the Series A round, and was joined by investors including Maniv Mobility, Next Gear Ventures, and Liil Ventures. The seed financing was led by Maniv Mobility.

- Count, a London-based, data analysis platform, raised $2.5 million seed funding. LocalGlobe led the round, and was joined by investors including Global Founders Capital. 

- Sprout.ai, a London-based company applying AI to insurance claims, raised $2.5 million in additional seed funding. Amadeus Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Playfair Capital and Techstars. Read more.

- Vida Diagnostics, Inc., a Coralville, Iowa-based maker of AI-powered lung imaging analysis, raised $2 million from OSF Ventures part of its second close of its Series C round.

- Frame AI, an AI-driven platform for operationalizing Voice-of-Customer, raised $6.3 million in a Series A funding. G20 Ventures and Greycroft co-led the round.

- Yes Health, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based digital health platform, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures led the round.

- Dashbird, a Tallinn, Estonia-based platform for serverless application monitoring, raised $2.1 million in seed funding. Paladin Capital Group led the round and was joined by investors including Passion Capital, Icebreaker.vc and Lemonade Stand.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Pearce Services, a Paso Robles-based provider of telecommunications infrastructure maintenance, repair, and engineering, partnered with New Mountain Capital and acquired MaxGen Energy Services and World Wind & Solar, providers of repair and maintenance services for the renewables industry and providers of  electric vehicle charging station infrastructure. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

- TSG, a portfolio company of Advent International, acquired Burnaby, British Columbia-based PerfectMind, a provider of software and services for the parks and recreation industry. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

OTHERS

- SAP, a German tech company, is weighing a sale of a unit that helps telecommunications operators route calls and text messages, Bloomberg reports citing sources. Read more.

- Frontier Communications, a Norwalk, Conn.-based telecommunications provider, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Read more.

- The Meiji Group acquired a 25% minority stake in AustAsia Investment Holdings, a company that operates dairy farms in China, from Japfa, a Singaporean food manufacturer. The stake is worth $254.4 million (about 28 billion yen). Read more.

IPOs

- Shasta, Iran’s wealthiest state-run holding company and the investment arm of its leading pension fund, raised roughly IR70tn ($440 million) via IPO in the country’s largest initial public offering. Iran’s government is seeking to generate  income as it deals with coronavirus and US sanctions.  Read more.

F+FS

- Mayfield raised $750 million across two venture capital funds, the $475 million Mayfield XVI and the $275 million Mayfield Select II. Read more.

- Section 32 is seeking to raise $350 million for its third fund, per an SEC filing.

PEOPLE

- Cathay Capital hired Ricky Roman as a Vice President for its North American Private Equity team. 

- Prostar Capital promoted Stuart Blackadder to Managing Director and Head of Prostar’s U.S. Office.